


DCAU Ficlet Collection 2016

by DoreyG



Series: Ficlet Collections 2016 [4]
Category: Batman: The Animated Series, Justice League & Justice League Unlimited (Cartoons), Superman: The Animated Series
Genre: Angst, Canon-Typical Violence, Community: comment_fic, Developing Relationship, Everybody Go Hug Harley, First Dates, Flirting, Future Fic, Hurt/Comfort, Ice Cream, M/M, Past Abuse, Pining, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Superpowers, Unrequited Crush
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-01-18
Updated: 2016-05-27
Packaged: 2018-05-14 18:13:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 1,971
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5753305
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DoreyG/pseuds/DoreyG
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A collection of any DCAU ficlets that I write that are under 500 words.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Time After Time [Justice League Cartoon, Clark Kent/J'onn J'onzz]

**Author's Note:**

> The drill here is slightly different, but still similar to my other ficlet collections! This collection contains any fics under 500 words that I write in 2016 in the DCAU. As a result, there may be multiple different pairings contained within it. Not all of these will be in the same universe, not all of these will be connected. More details will be in the individual chapter titles/notes.
> 
> Except superhero antics!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kryptonians, as it turns out, age almost as slowly as Martians.

Kryptonians, as it turns out, age almost as slowly as Martians. Fifty years on from the day they first met Clark still looks much the same as he did then - A few more grey hairs and a slowly spreading map of wrinkles, yes, but still nowhere close to the stooped eighty year old that he should be.

“Do you ever get used to it?” Clark asks one day, as they perch just over the holographic projection of the globe and stare out over the steadily more modern city, “watching the world change? Leaving everybody behind?”

Bruce is cloistered angrily away in Gotham, Shayera and John are happily wrinkled and getting more deaf by the day, Wally retired long ago to marry a nice reporter named Linda and live a generally quiet life. More often than not it’s just the two of them now, graced by the white haired Diana’s increasingly rare visits from Themyscira.

“No,” he says, after considering for a second, but manages a slow smile in the face of the setting sun, “it is a lot easier to face when you have company, however.”

A long pause, as the world fades into night around them. And then Clark, slowly, starts to smile in return.


	2. And Leap [Superman: TAS, Clark Kent/Lex Luthor]

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Having an alien boyfriend is useful, sometimes.

“Superman,” he hisses into his phone, and ducks as part of his desk is blown away right beside his head, “ _Clark_ , in case you haven’t noticed the men with guns are getting rather close to my position. Any help you can provide would be _much_ appreciated.”

“Lex, don’t use my name in public,” Clark scolds, but sounds faintly concerned underneath. How sweet, his alien boyfriend _does_ care, “I can’t get up there quickly enough.”

“Well,” he snarls, and tries to avoid his voice shaking too much. It’s just adrenaline, nothing more, he’ll look back on this period later – holding a glass of wine and hopefully getting an apologetic foot massage from Clark - and laugh, “ _that’s_ helpful.”

“…Lex, do you trust me?”

And he pauses for a second. Allows the adrenaline to shake through him, hears the steps of the gunmen getting closer and closer and…

He’s faced death often enough, but this time he finds that he doesn’t really want to face it without admitting the truth. He sighs, tilts his head back against the wood and curses the sentimental streak that Clark has been encouraging within him, “what’s the plan?”

“Jump out of the window.”

“ _What_?”

“I know it sounds crazy, Lex, but it’s the only way. Jump out of the window and I’ll catch you, I _promise_.”

And it does sound crazy. And insane, and deeply hazardous to his health…

And that sentimental streak that Clark has encouraged within him is still there, waiting with warm hope. He hesitates for only a second more, and then sighs and starts crawling towards the nearest window.


	3. Need Somebody [Batman: TAS, Harley Quinn/Bruce Wayne]

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Harley has nightmares, but Bruce is always there to help.
> 
> [WARNING: Does contain mentions of PTSD and a past abusive relationship.]

She wakes from the nightmare with tears in her eyes, gasping as the dark room comes into focus around her. It takes a long few moments before she remembers that it isn’t real, that it’s just a _memory_ \- but even then it’s hard to deny the pounding of her heart in her chest, the sickly taste in her throat as she curls into herself.

“Harley?” A low voice rumbles, from besides the bed.

She dreamt that she was back there.

“Harley, you’re _alright_.”

Several years ago, half insane with only a cruel clown for company. She could feel the chalky make-up on her cheeks, taste the blood in her mouth. She could remember what it was like to raise a gun and pull the trigger-

“ _Harley_.”

…But that’s long over now.

She turns over, still half paralysed by the nightmare, until she comes face to face with Bruce. He’s obviously just come in from patrol. His hair is dark with sweat and plastered to his head, and he’s still wearing most of his costume. The concern on his face is quiet, genuine. She used to think, all those years ago when she wore make-up on her cheeks and tasted blood in her mouth, that the Batman was incapable of any tender feelings. She’s glad, that she’s been proved wrong.

They stare at each other quietly for a moment, and then she sighs – rolls a little closer to the edge of the bed, and reaches for him, “I had a nightmare.”

“A nightmare,” Bruce says softly, not a question. And that’s another thing she’s glad she’s discovered – Bruce is as haunted as the rest of them, but he still gets up every damn day and faces it as best he can, “it wasn’t real, Harley.”

“I know,” she nods, attempts a smile.

“Our dreams mean nothing, they’re just the mad scrambling of our brain trying to sort out the day,” Bruce considers her for a second, thoughtfully, and then slowly leans in – the kiss is soothing in a way that she never thought a kiss could be, calm and gentle and feeling so much like home, “do you want me to get in with you? I’m a little sweaty, but-“

“You can have a shower in the morning,” she nods again, smiles more genuinely this time as she scoots over in the bed, “come on, Brucie, I’ve seen you worse.”

Bruce favours her with a fond look, and obeys – takes off his cape, and then slides into the bed to hold her. And it doesn’t fix everything, it doesn’t even calm the pounding of her heart entirely, but… It helps. And she’s going to take whatever help she can get.


	4. Thirsty [Superman: TAS, Lex/Clark]

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lex wakes up needing a drink of water in the middle of the night.

He wakes up thirsty in the middle of the night, Clark dead to the world at his side. He shifts for a moment, rolls over in the bed hoping that he'll be able to ignore it and go back to sleep... But no. That scratchiness remains in his throat, scraping in a way that can be described as annoying at best.

 _Ugh_.

Clark mumbles in his sleep, but doesn't wake all the way up as he drags himself out of bed. He stands on his feet for a second, dazed this early, and then decides that it's really far too cold to stagger into the kitchen naked. Bends briefly down to the floor as he makes his way out of the room, and picks up the first pile of fabric he finds. Wraps it around his waist, as he pads through the dark and silent apartment and to the kitchen sink.

It's somewhat hard to open the cupboards while keeping his eyes closed, but he manages it with - if he does say so himself - some style. Plucks one of the mugs Clark brought with him when he moved in, old and chipped and with a Smallville high school logo fading on the front, out and fills it with cold water. Takes one big gulp, and turns back to the bedroom with the sincere hope that he'll be able to go back to bed and get a few more hours before Clark is summoned to save the world or Mercy calls him to salvage another business deal.

He staggers back to bed along the dark corridor, making sure to keep his eyes still largely closed. He sets the mug of water gently on the side table, softly enough that the _click_ of it has no chance of waking him up properly. He drops the soft fabric from around his waist, prepares to clamber back into bed with Clark and successfully see out the rest of the night without a single disturbance more...

"Lex?" Clark yawns sleepily, and turns over. Slings one heavily arm across his chest and drags him steadily down to the sheets, "why were you wearing my cape to get water?"

...Well.

 _Shit_.

He bites his lip on a sound of frustration, as Clark gives another sleepy blink and falls happily back to sleep. Resigns himself to spending the rest of the night wide awake, and _furious_.


	5. Marshmallow Fluff [Wally West/Bruce Wayne]

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Wally thinks their first date doesn't go so well, Bruce thinks that it's absolutely wonderful.

"Uh," he says, a few hours into their date with ice cream _possibly_ smeared up his cheeks and chocolate _maybe_ on the end of his nose and marshmallow fluff most definitely stuck in one of his eyebrows, "this... Isn't exactly a good date, is it?"

"Mm?" Bruce answers, staring at him in a way that he'd - if he was _actually_ dumb - almost call dreamy, "isn't it?"

"I asked if you wanted to share a dessert," he points out, shifts a touch uncomfortably in his chair, "and then proceeded to eat the dessert myself. All of it. In, like, the _least_ elegant way possible."

"Was it nice?"

"Well, _yeah_ ," he shakes his head, tries his very hardest to ignore that quite frankly _misleading_ expression on Bruce's face, "but that's not exactly the point I was going for there, Ba- Brucie. It just doesn't seem very nice to get your hopes up, stomp on them violently and act like a _pig_ while doing so."

"Wally," Bruce interrupts, _distractingly_ reaches out to take his hand, "do you really think I didn't expect any of that?"

"...Yes?" He ventures, slightly distracted by the warmth of Bruce's skin. The frankly _unfair_ warmth of Bruce's skin, "I mean, no? What- what answer am I supposed to give here?"

"I didn't ask you on a date," Bruce continues fondly, only acknowledging his babbling with the warmest of wry smiles. The kind of smile that he's spent long afternoons mooning over the very _thought_ of, "because I wanted you to be restrained, timid and boringly elegant. I asked you on a date because I wanted _you_ , Wally."

...He gulps, slightly dizzy at the implications of those words, "me?"

Bruce nods, smiles slightly.

"Well," he stares deep into Bruce's eyes, utters a slightly shaky laugh at the sheer _pressure_ of them, "um. If that's the case... Would you maybe like me somewhere slightly more private than this restaurant?"

Bruce's eyes go dark.

"Like my very private and hopefully not too much of a pigsty apartment, for instance...?"

" _That_ is part of why I asked you out," Bruce offers, voice almost as ragged as it is when he does his whole Batman routine, and rises from the table. A wall of muscle, a wall of muscle that he's gonna _wrap_ himself around, "my car or... Yours?"

Even with marshmallow fluff in his eyebrow, this date is the _best_.


	6. The Fight and Fate [Bruce Wayne/Dick Grayson]

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dick misses Bruce.

The thing is, they weren't technically anything to each other. They never dated, they never fooled around, they never even took that final step over the distance between them and _kissed_. No matter that Bruce was his best friend, his partner, his main fantasy from the time he knew what it was to fantasise. To the outside world they were just friends, pals, _associates_. He was just the little pet Bruce took in, when nobody else would have him.

It doesn't feel like the outside world matters much, now.

His loft is silent, empty, free of Alfred shuffling around or those complicated half smiles Bruce always used to give when he was _really_ pleased with something. The cupboard is bare, the couch has nobody on it and the only smell in the air is his own cheap aftershave.

He could go out and seek company, of course, but what good would that do? There'd still be emptiness in his arms, a lack of care by his side. Even if he went out on the rooftops, it'd be the same. An endless absence, hurting even worse than the beatdowns when he was young and green and didn't know what it was like to _want_ with all his being.

...He misses him, misses Bruce with every single bit of that want.

But that doesn't really matter, he decides as he settles back into the couch with a sigh, because they weren't technically _anything_ to each other. And that's what Bruce thinks, so it must be true.


End file.
